MAKHACHKALA, Russia, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Six police officers were injured in two blasts in Makhachkala, the second blast in the North Caucasus Dagestan capital in three days, authorities said Thursday.
Three officers "were shell-shocked" and given medical treatment following the first blast, a law-enforcement official told the Russian news agency Itar-Tass.
Three other officers were hospitalized when a second blast hit a patrol car as it passed a house, the official said.
No reason for the blasts was given. Criminal proceedings were instituted as police investigated the incidents, the news agency said.
On Monday a bomb hidden in a garbage can went off in Makhachkala as a taxi went by, injuring the taxi driver and a female passenger, police said.
Dagestan, a Russian republic, has been a scene of low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism since the 1990s. The militant Islamic group Shariat Jamaat is responsible for much of the violence, the non-profit International Crisis Group said.
Shariat Jamaat was created during the Second Chechen War and favors Dagestan's independence as an Islamic state.
Russians account for less than 5 percent of Dagestan's population, although Russian is the primary official language.
